Joining a Run Club

I am not new to running. I've been doing it off and on for the past few years. When I had Angry Toddler, I slowed down a little. I totally regret that. I should have been running more during that time. Running would have really helped alleviate the stress in my life of having a reflux-y baby.

I've been pretty dedicated to running lately though. Why? Cause it's easy, free, and you don't need a partner to run. But like everyone else, sometimes I felt that my running routine got a little boring.

In February, my 24-Lift instructor, Doris, mentioned that a running club was starting at lululemon. She said that it would be on Thursday nights and that they would be training for the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundations "Reaching for a Cure" Race. I figured why not and showed up. I only knew Doris, and no one else at the running club. I don't think I had ever stepped inside lululemon.

We started by splitting our groups up into 5K or 10K runs. They were a variety of people and everyone had different running backgrounds. Some people were beginners, and some people were advanced. Every Thursday, I do 24-Lift in the morning. I was still sore that night. I knew that there was no way that I would be able to do my Lift class and then run 6.2 miles later that day. I stuck with the 5K group. Because we started the group before Daylight Savings Time, it got dark outside about 15 minutes into our run. Some of us wore lovely headlights to guide our path. We were running during prime traffic time. We wanted to make sure that the cars saw us.

We ran the same path every week for 10 weeks. It was a great path, that included 2 pretty steep hills. I was able to make it all 10 weeks without an absence. Not everyone made it every week, but people made it most weeks. We chatted about what had been going on in our life while we were trying to focus on running. This made things go much faster.

Last week was our last week of run club. I was kind sad about it ending. This was something I had to look forward to every week. We got some great t-shirts from lululemon for our run and took some pictures. On Saturday night, we had a pasta night at the store also. They have some great people that work there.

On Sunday, we all headed out to the Irvine Spectrum and ran the PCRF Run. Some people ran the 5K, some ran the 10K, and we even had one run the 1/2 Marathon. We then all headed to the beer garden after the race and celebrated.

I will do a race report tomorrow to specifically talk about the race.

I would have never thought to join a "run club". It was a great experience. After talking to everyone at the beer garden, I think they are going to start another run club soon. I think we are going to take a break for a few weeks though. Angry Husband will be happy because he will get to hang out with his friends even earlier on Thursday nights.

Here are some other Orange County Running Clubs if you are interested in try one out:

Cal Coast Track Club
Orange County Track Club
Run Club at NikeWomen, Various locations throughout Orange County (contact store)
Snail's Pace Running Club
South Coast Roadrunners